The invention concerns the tight closure of an opening in a wall by an articulated door (cover, inspection panel, etc) which has to open to one side of the opening but is pivoted about an axis on the other side at a non-negligible distance from the wall.
It applies in particular, but not exclusively, to access doors in aircraft jet engine cowlings.
It is a simple matter to achieve tight closure of an opening by means of a pivoting door if the pivot axis of the door is in the immediate vicinity of the wall including the opening.
On the other hand, the same result is difficult to achieve when, for various reasons such as significant curvature of the door, for example, the pivot axis must be at a non-negligible transverse distance from the opening. In this context non-negligible distance means a distance of several times the thickness of the door.
Simple geometrical considerations show that to enable the door to move on the opposite side of the opening to the pivot axis the door necessarily stops in the closed configuration at a distance which, in the direction parallel to the pivot axis, is the closest to it. There is, therefore, a gap between the facing edges of the door and the opening. The gap is proportional to the angle through which the door opens and the distance between the articulation axis and the opening. When tight closure of the opening is required, it is necessary to provide an additional mobile flap adapted either to close the gap between the door and the edge of the opening or to clear the gap to enable the door to be opened.
The problem then arises of controlling the movement of the flap synchronously with that of the panel.
An object of the invention is to overcome this problem.